Plastic binding element



Oct. 27, 1959 w. N. LANE PLASTIC BINDING ELEMENT Filed Feb. 13, 1958 Mm4/ lane a. e .1 a.

United States Patent I PLASTIC BINDING ELEMENT William N. Lane, LakeForest, 111., assignor to General Binding Corporation, Northbrook, Ill.,a corporation of Illinois g Application February 13,1958, Serial No.715,124

Claims. (Cl. 129-1) This invention relates to bindings and moreparticularly to bindings formed of flexible material such as thoseformed of a vinyl resin, celluloid or other plastic materials, as wellas those formed of fiber materials, including paper or the like.

For many years it has been known that a convenient and satisfactorybinding element may be provided by forming a comb-shaped member intogenerally tubular form so that the fingers extending from the backboneare curled to form closed rings. These fingers are arranged to extendthrough aligned perforations in a-stack of sheets to be bound. It hasbeen customary to have the fingers underlie or overlie the back portion.It has also been found desirable to firmly secure the ends of thefingers to the back portion to provide a rugged binding element whichwill not come apart in use. However, previous binding elements whichhave incorporated a mechanical lock have been so constructed that it wasnecessary to individually lock each of the many fingers to the backportion. Furthermore, prior efforts to provide a simple, rugged securingmeans have not met with any great suc cess.

Accordingly, the present invention relates to a novel construction of aplastic binding element having greatly improved means for securing theends of the fingers to the back portion of a binding element and havinga novel arrangement wherein not all, but only a relatively few, of thefingers are mechanically locked to the back portron.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide abinding formed of a resilient plastic material such as a vinyl resin,which comprises a series of shaped fingers which integrally extend froma common backbone through loose fitting holes along one edge of thestack of sheets to be bound, in which some but not all of the fingersare mechanically locked to the backbone.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novelmechanical lock arrangement for plastic binding elements.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel andimproved binding element in which the majority of the ring fingersunderlie the back portion and in which a'few but not all-of the ringfingers overlie and are interlocked with the back portion.

The novel features which characterize this invention are set forth withparticularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however,both as to its organization and manner of construction, together withfurther ob jects and advantages thereof, may best be understood byreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a plan view of a binding element constructed in accordancewith the principles of the present invention showing the element in itsdeveloped position;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the binding element illustrated inFigure 1;

Fig. 3 is a binding element similar to that shown in Fig. 2 butincorporating a different form of the invention; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along line -IVIV of Figure 2.

Generally, the present invention contemplates a looseleaf binding deviceformed from a blank piece of flexible material, the blank comprising amain continuous back portion having a substantially flat surface andhaving'a plurality of ring fingers extending from one longitudina edgethereof.

Referring now more particularly to Figure 1, a binding element is shownas having a substantially flat back portion 10 from which a plurality ofintegrally formed ring fingers 11 extend. Since it has been found thatthe greatest stress on any binding element of the type herein describedis on the two outer end fingers applicants invention contemplates abinding element in which only the end fingers are mechanically locked tothe back portion 10. The fingers may be locked to the back portion bythe novel interlocking means hereinafter set forth.

As shown most clearly in Figuresl and 2, the binder element is shown ashaving a substantially fiat back portion 10 having upwardly curved sides13 along bothlongitudinal edges thereof. Along one of the longitudinaledge portions 13, a pair of T-shaped slots are formed at opposite endsof the binding element. the opposite longitudinal edge of the backbone10 are a plurality of fingers 11 which may be curled to formclosedrings, and a pair of interlocking fingers 12 which may be alsocurled to form closed rings and which are arranged to interlock with theT-shaped slots 15 in the backbone 10 and are, as a result, substantiallyaligned therewith. Y

The ring fingers 12 have tapered end portions 16 which are notched as at17 to form necks 18 in close proximity to their tapered end portions 16.The notches 17,

which may be cut or stamped in the forming or blanking operation, have aforward shoulder portion 19 generally perpendicular to the longitudinaledges of the ring fingers 12 and a rear shoulder 20 sloping in adirection toward the flat back portion 10.

'I'he T-shaped slots are formed in such a manner that the base portion24 of the T-slot is of slightly greater width than the neck 18 of thering fingers 12 for reasons which will hereinafter become obvious.Furthermore, the top 25 of the T-slots are formed so as to have a widthslightly greater than the width of the ring fingers 12.

It will now become obvious that each of the ring fingers 12 may becurled into. the form of the loop and inserted mentally determined thatthe greatest stress on a binding.

element is on the outer end fingers and, for this reason, a plasticbinding element has been devised in which only the outer end fingers aremechanically interlocked with the substantially flat back portion. Itshould be noted, of course, that if so desired two or more of the ringfingers on the outer ends of the binding may be arranged to interlockwith the flat back portion in accordance with the length of the bindingelement and the weight of the sheets to be bound.

As is shown most clearly in Figure 3, a relatively long plastic bindingelement may be arranged to have one or more of the centrally locatedfingers interlocked with the flat back portion. In a binding elementarranged in this manner it may, for instance, be found desirable to havetwo interlocking ring fingers on either end of the Extending from itshould herein be understood that this embodiment V of the invention hasbeen used for illustrative purposes only and that various modificationsand variations of the present invention may be effected withoutdeparting from the novel spirit and scope of the concepts thereof.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mechanical binder of the rolled comb type formed of flexiblematerial comprising a backbone and a plurality of fingers extending fromone longitudinal edge thereof and curled backwardly to overlap and lieinside said backbone and to form a plurality of closed loops with saidbackbone, said backbone also having spaced T-shaped slots adjacent theother longitudinal edge thereof, with the base of the slot portionsextending toward the said other edge, the upper portion of said T-shapedslots having a width somewhat greater than the width of said fingers,one of said slots being disposed adjacent each end of said bindingelement, there being substantially fewer slots than fingers, companioninterlocking elements on the free ends of the fingers aligned with saidslots arranged to interlock with said backbone when positioned withinthe base of saidT-shaped slots and said aligned fingers being positionedto overlap the other edge of said backbone outside thereof to extendinwardly through their respective slots whereby load applied to saidaligned fingers by materials bound thereon maintains the said alignedfingers in interlocked position in said base of the slot and all of thefingers are retained in overlapping position relative to said backbone.

2. A binding element of the rolled comb typeformed of flexible materialcomprising a backbone and a plurality of fingers extending from onelongitudinal edge thereof and curled backwardly to overlap and lieinside said backbone and to form a plurality of closed loops with saidbackbone, said backbone also having spaced T-shaped slots substantiallyfewer in number than said fingers and positioned adjacent the otherlongitudinal edge of the backbone with the base of the slot portionsextending toward the said other edge, the upper portion of said T-shapedslots having a width somewhat greater than the width of said fingers,and disposed adjacent the ends of said binding element, the ends of thefingers aligned with said T-shaped slots being notched on opposite sideedges in proximity to their ends to thereby provide companioninterlocking portions arranged to interlock with said backbone whenpositioned within the base of said T-shaped slots and said alignedfingers being positioned to overlap the other edge of said backboneoutside thereof to extend inwardly through their respective slotswhereby load applied to said aligned fingers by materials bound thereonmaintains the said aligned fingers in interlocked position in said baseof the slot and all of the fingers are retained in overlapping positionrelative to said backbone.

3. A binding element of the curled comb type formed of flexible materialcomprising a backbone and a plurality of fingers extending from onelongitudinal edge thereof and curled backwardly and overlapping andlying inside said backbone and forming a plurality of closed loops withsaid backbone, said backbone also having spaced slots substantiallyfewer in number than the number of fingers and positioned adjacent butspaced from the other longitudinal edge of said backbone and disposedadjacent the ends of the corresponding fingers of said binding element,the ends of the fingers aligned with said slots being arranged tooverlap the other edge of said backbone outside thereof and to extendinwardly through said slots and having means thereon to mechanicallyinterlock with said backbone to prevent disassembly th'erefiom underload.

4. A mechanical binder of the rolled comb type formed of flexiblematerial comprising a backbone and a plu rality of fingers extendingfrom one longitudinal edge thereof and curled backwardly and overlappingand lying inside said backbone and forming a plurality of closed loopswith said backbone, said backbone also having spaced slots adjacent butspaced from the other longitudinal edge of said backbone, one of saidslots being disposed adjacent each end of said binding element, therebeing substantially fewer slots than fingers, wherein the ends of thefingers aligned with said slots are arranged to overlap the other edgeof said backbone outside thereof and to extend inwardly through saidslots and wherein the ends of the fingers aligned with said slots areprovided with means thereon to mechanically interlock with said backboneto prevent disassembly therefrom under load.

5. A binding element of the rolled type formed of flexible materialcomprising a backbone and a plurality of fingers extending from onelongitudinal edge thereof and curled backwardly and overlapping andlying inside said backbone and forming a plurality of closed loops withsaid backbone, said backbone also having spaced T-shaped slotssubstantially fewer in number than said fingers and positioned adjacentbut spaced from the other longitudinal edge of said backbone with thebase of the slot portions extending toward said other edge, the upperportion of said T-shaped slots having a width somewhat greater than thewidth of said fingers and disposed adjacent the end of the correspondingfingers of said binding element, companion interlocking portions on thefree ends of the said corresponding fingers aligned with said slotsarranged to interlock with said backbone when positioned within the baseof said T-shaped slots, and said aligned fingers beingepositioned tooverlap the other edge of said backbone outside thereof and to extendinwardly through their respective slots whereby load applied to saidaligned fingers by materials bound thereon maintains the said alignedfingers in interlocked position in the said base of the respectiveT-shaped slot and all of the fingers are retained in overlappingposition relative to said backbone.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,210,106 Tauber Aug. 6, 1940

